Allen West’s Communist Conspiracy Rooted in Christian Anti-Communism?

Rep. Allen West, the Florida Republican who has previously made anti-Islam statements about Muslim members of Congress, is now answering for his assertion that there are about 80 members of Congress who are communists.

His remarks were first published in the Palm Beach Post. In a video released to the Daily Caller (via TPM), West is shown responding to a constituent question by saying there are roughly 78-81 members of the “Democrat Party” who are communists. “It’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus,” he adds helpfully.

Where might he get such a notion? I have an idea of at least one source. In his 2010 re-issue of the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade classic of 1960, You Can Still Trust the Communists to be Communists (Socialists and Progressives, Too), Christian worldview educator David Noebel writes:

Most Americans are totally unaware that the US House of Representatives crawls with a large, well-organized assembly of Socialist organizations. These organizations are dedicated to (a) bringing about the destruction of the Capitalist economic system (portrayed as greedy, conservative, religious and/or filthy rich) and (b) slowly but surely bringing production, education, food, and health care under the complete control and regulation of the federal government.

Noebel goes on to claim that “The legislators involved in this Socialistic undertaking belong to one or more radical House organizations,” including the Progressive Democrats of America, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as the Democratic Socialists of America “who do not identify their House members since they consider all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus part of their membership.” (The then-president of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney, adds Noebel, in a real LOL moment, “could well be the most powerful influence in the House of Representatives.”) These organizations, writes Noebel, “quite literally comprise a Socialist Red Army within the very contours of the House of Representatives.”

Noebel went into a bit more detail in a 2010 public lecture and in interview with me here. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that West had read, seen excerpts of, or at least heard about, Noebel’s book.

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Sarah Posner

Sarah Posner is the author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, The Nation, Salon, and other publications.

Also from the author:

Keenly observed and meticulously reported, "God's Profits" examines the unholy alliance between a new breed of corrupt televangelists and the Republican Party, which is eagerly courting "values voters" in the nation's largest megachurches.Polipoint Press (2008)